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seen. He was not gullible when it came to female charms. Not by a long shot. But he could feel the draw to her. A draw that was part sexual, part…something else. Like a full moon pulling at a restless sea and causing a dangerously high tide.
    Cutter was too smart to act on any of the crazy thoughts running through his head. He knew all too well what could happen when youmixed sex with an assignment. The last time he’d given in to temptation someone had ended up dead. He’d nearly been killed himself and had spent a good part of the next year wishing he hadn’t survived.
    “Unless you want to end up dead,” he said, “you’ve got to keep moving.”
    “Maybe that’s a better alternative to spending the rest of my life—”
    His temper snapped. Stopping abruptly, he swung around to face her. Roughly he yanked her toward him so that her face was only inches from his. Close enough for him to smell the rosemary and lemon of her hair. He steeled himself against the sweet warmth of her breath against his face.
    “If you think death is a better alternative than life,” he said, “then you haven’t seen it up close and personal. Believe me, there’s nothing dignified or honorable about it. It’s the ugliest thing you’ll ever see in your life. So don’t make stupid statements like that.”
    She blinked as if his words had stunned her.
    He hadn’t meant to lose his temper. Pulling himself back from a place he didn’t want to go, Cutter looked around, blew out a curse at the sight of the heavily falling snow. “The goodnews is that the snow will cover our tracks,” he grumbled.
    “The way you said that makes me think there’s some bad news on the way.”
    “Yeah, it’s called a blizzard.”
    “At least fate is being consistent.”
    Not wanting to think about just how bad their luck had been so far, he took her down a small hill and through a forest of sapling aspen and piñon pine that opened to a clearing. A secondary trail ran north and into the higher elevations; to the south was a vertical drop of three hundred feet to the valley floor.
    “Which way?” she asked.
    “Definitely not down.” He stopped a few yards from the edge of the cliff.
    She motioned toward a narrow trail that disappeared into a densely wooded area. “Looks like that trail hasn’t been used for a while.”
    “Deer or elk trail probably.”
    “Where does it go?”
    He shrugged. “Into the higher elevations.”
    “Are there any houses or ranger stations?”
    “There used to be some hunting lodges in the area. If we’re lucky one of them might still be standing.”
    “That doesn’t sound very promising.”
    “Just keeping with the theme.”
    “How far?”
    “Don’t know exactly.”
    “If you don’t know, how will we find it?”
    “Don’t know that, either.”
    “Cutter, if these men have access to a chopper, as far as we know they’ll be waiting for us when we get there.”
    He looked around, gauging the snowfall. It was coming down hard. Visibility had dwindled. The wind was whipping. “You got to be able to see to fly a chopper. Not even The Jaguar is crazy enough to fly in this mess.”
    A low rumble shook the earth. An instant later a helicopter roared out of the valley like a monstrous pterodactyl. The blades kicked snow into a blinding white swirl. Cutter caught a glimpse of yellow paint and black lettering. He reached for his sidearm, realized too late it wasn’t there.
    Shoving his prisoner toward the deer trail, he shouted, “Run! Take cover!”
    They were midway to the trailhead when the first gunshot split the air.
     
     

 
    Chapter Four
     
    The snow and wind blinded her. Mattie didn’t know if the skies had finally opened up or if the swirling snow was from the rotor blades of the chopper. All she cared about was dodging a bullet.
    The endeavor seemed hopeless with the chopper hovering just a dozen yards above and two men with rifles taking potshots at them. The pines provided some cover but not